(relaxing music)
- My belief philosophically
is that you can't actually teach conducting,
you can only learn conducting.
So a great deal of the structure of the course
is providing opportunities for the conductors
to get up on the podium.
- Every concert, every rehearsal is e-reproducible.
So I think all of these things led me
to become interested in conducting.
- To conduct an orchestra, every week is unique.
We learn around 40 pieces in less than three months.
- There's a lot of practical experience that comes from
this program where you not only get to work
with the orchestras in the school
and then the visiting conductors, but also then you know,
that added component of being able to see what it's like
with a real, major professional orchestra.
- So the lab orchestra is a group that meets every Friday
for two and a half hours,
and they are all student musicians, but they are paid.
We can study scores by ourselves, of course, and we have to,
but the only way to get better at conducting is to conduct
and so to conduct a group like this every week
has just made all the difference in the world.
- These are usually very experienced players
in the Julliard area, which means that lab orchestra
quite often plays at the level
of a professional chamber orchestra.
This means that the conductors can figure out
instantaneously if what they are doing is helping
or getting in the way.
- It's a chance for us to take risks, experiment with things
and for all of us to say, okay, this worked,
this didn't work,
and then the students can also provide feedback to us.
It's really a chance for all of us to understand
how to make the relationship between conductor
and orchestra the most seamless it can be.
- One of the cool aspects of this program
is that we are very closely involved
with the Julliard Orchestra cycles
and the musicians in general.
So in addition to having lab orchestra,
one of us is assigned to multiple concert cycles
as cover conductors and assistant conductors.
So when the guest artists and the guest conductors come,
we get to lead multiple preparatory rehearsals
with the orchestra.
- We get a rehearsal all to ourselves to take the orchestra
through the piece and sort of address
the largest ensemble issues
and then these world class conductors come in
and we get to watch them work and see their approach
to fixing and elevating the orchestra.
- We get to know so many wonderful personalities,
like Barbara Hennigan, John Williams, Gustavo Dudamel,
Manfred Honeck, Antonio Pappano.
You just can't stop watching and observing.
- As conductors, we are about preparation.
We essentially energize the silence
and then ask people to play.
The thing which I find marvelously fascinating
about conducting is that in a sense,
the technical here is what you do aspects can be taught
to someone in five minutes
but the difference when you're a conductor
is that when you stand up, you are entirely transparent.
You are communicating all the time,
whether you are aware of it or not.
- Something that I really respect
and love about David's conducting teaching philosophy
is that he is not trying to make
little carbon copies of himself.
He wants actually the exact opposite of that.
- David Robertson has probably
one of the most thoughtful people in the world.
He's always just been a fountain of knowledge
and mentorship.
He's always digging deeper for something
that is truly authentic to the person that's on the podium
and how they understand the music that they're conducting.
It was never about imitation,
it was always about discovery.
- He tries to help us identify when strong musical ideas
and choices are coming through to the orchestra
and when we're blocked and when they're not.
That has been my favorite part of working with him
over the past two years is he's really good
at either addressing things head on when necessary,
but also sort of running the slow game with you
where you don't even quite realize what he's doing
until one day you wake up
and realize your conducting is much better.
- We all come from different corners of the world.
We have different learning methods, and that's the beauty.
We just share and see how does the other one approach
a certain problem, how can we help each other?
- The whole thrust of the program is that when you've left,
you really have all of the tools to do anything you want,
to be involved with conducting in any way
that your heart desires.
- My best tip is make the most out of it
because this kind of amazing thing happens rarely.
- Those two years, they go by so quick.
But all those experiences stay with you your whole life.
They will yeah, strengthen you in moments of doubt.
- For how different we all are,
and how different all of our backgrounds are,
it's a great reminder of how music is so much bigger
than all of us, that it brings all these kinds of
different people together.